All the Wrong Moves: A Memoir About Chess, Love, and Ruining Everything

by Sasha Chapin

"A briskly told coming-of-age memoir...Chapin has a fine eye for the game's beauty...In the course of his entertaining odyssey, Mr. Chapin offers a Zen-like secret to chess, and to living."
--Wall Street Journal

Sasha Chapin is a victim of chess. Like countless amateurs before him--Albert Einstein, Humphrey Bogart, Marcel Duchamp--the game has consumed his life and his mind. First captivated by it as a member of his high school chess club, his passion was rekindled during an accidental encounter with chess hustlers on the streets of Kathmandu. In its aftermath, he forgot how to care about anything else. He played at all hours, for weeks at a time. Like a spurned lover, he tried to move on, but he found the game more seductive the more he resisted it.
    
And so, he thought, if he can't defeat his obsession, he had to succumb to it.

All the Wrong Moves traces Chapin's rollicking two-year journey around the globe in search of glory. He travels to tournaments in Bangkok and Hyderabad. He seeks out a mentor in St. Louis, a grandmaster whose personality is half rabbi and half monk, and who offers cryptic wisdom and caustic insults ("you're the best player in your chair"). His story builds toward the Los Angeles Open, where Chapin is clearly outmatched and yet no less determined not to lose.

Along the way, he chronicles the highs and lows of his fixation, driven on this quest by lust, terror, and the elusive possibility of victory. Stylish, inventive, and laugh-out-loud funny, All the Wrong Moves is more than a work of history or autobiography. It's a celebration of the purity, violence, and beauty of the game.

Genres: Chess, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, History

215 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 13, 2019

Reviews

[Sasha Chapin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's quite good for a first book, and it's short and breezy. I'm not ashamed of it, which is more than I can say for most of my writing.

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so good I turned back to the first page the very second I finished, for the second reading. This was the last thing I expected from the "chess book", but it's simply one of the best writing styles I've ever read. I mean, easily in the top three ever. It's unique, funny, sad, deep, heavy, easy, life-truth-bearing, yet very easily digestible variety. And somehow, it's the author's first book. Not the last one, I hope. I have few theories why the author failed as a chess player, which may or may not be true. But one thing is for certain: if you invested that much deliberate practice and deep thinking into the chess as you did in writing, you would live long and prosper in the chessboard plains. And no, I won't accept that this book just fell out of your head as a result of natural talent or something. There's beautiful music to your words, and one needs to learn how to play the instrument. Nobody does that "naturally". And that life-chess metaphor at the end, my God, that's one beautiful, archetypal truth that would make Carl Jung offer you a draw. That's the exact way chess should be played, life lived, and this book read. Slowly, enjoying every move, never wanting to end.

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sasha Chapin is obsessed with the game of chess. "The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." (Paul Morphy quote)

In this well-written, insightful and often hilarious memoir, Chapin describes how the game of chess took over his life. He never really excelled at it at any point but kept believing that he could. He traveled the world looking for teachers and tournaments; he played online incessantly: he kept losing. Like any other addiction, he gave it up numerous times but would slip back. Unfortunately I've known too many people with similar addictions to enjoy reading about his.

I received a copy of this memoir from Doubleday in their Facebook book club giveaway. Many thanks for the opportunity.

[Tom Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd strive for the very edge of possibility. I couldn't become a grandmaster, or a master at all. Becoming a surgeon was more likely. Becoming a frog was probably more likely. But I thought I could maybe, maybe, achieve a level of skill sufficient enough that I wouldn't immediately crumple, when playing the sport I love most, against any significant opposition. Enough that my brother, if we ever sat down for a serious game again, would have to watch his ass. Enough so that maybe I wouldn't completely hate myself. (90)

3 stars. Often amusing, frequently relatable, sometimes not. Good for hopeless romantics and anyone who's bumped up against their own personal Chess ceiling but dreams of moving up another level still.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's mostly fine.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Milwaukee Brewer's pitcher living in my apartment complex decided to forgo his annual winter retreat to AZ and one cold, snowy night asked if I knew how to play chess. Well, I know the moves. He proceeded to kick my butt over and over again. Don't think I ever did beat him but as he moved on to San Francisco, the fire he ignited stayed lit. Milwaukee had an active chess scene so I got to attend some grandmaster lectures, participate in club play and official tournaments. Naturally, the Fischer-Spassky match intensified my interest during this period. I gave it up for a few years after moving to CA but the flame returned when I relocated to Florida and a retired military man and I began to play on weekends. I found an active chess group near the office. This group contained some Russian expats as well as rank beginners so it was fun to set some evenings aside to play. I had a chance to take a lesson at Sammy Reshevsky's home, he a famous grandmaster, 7 time U.S. champion who beat Bobby Fisher a few times. I once drove several hundred miles round trip to see the U.S. Open in Jacksonville where I had a chance to meet Yasser Seirawan, 4 time U.S. champion and noted chess author. Met a fellow in NC who beat me with surprising ease so I was not surprised to find out he was the WV state champion and we played for years by mail. I play at about the level of the author of this book, at about the 1500-1600 level which is the rating for the average club player. My main problem is my inconsistency, beat an expert once then turned around and lost to a 12 year old rated hundreds of points below me. Biggest achievement? Being the only one to beat a master in a 12 person simultaneous game. My interest has waned the last few years, competition is hard to find but for online which is not quite the same as live tournament competition. I donated 222 chess books to a chess club when I downsized. But, I digress, severely ...

I wanted to make the point that yes, the chess bug is infectious, the addiction is filled with the highs and lows of tournament competition and no book I have ever read has been able to capture the nature of the game as this one does. Most books on the topic are written by grandmasters and the rarefied air they breath is difficult to translate to the average chess mope like me. Granted, I did not travel internationally for the games, I did not destroy relationships and jobs over it so maybe I was lucky. I just figured out earlier than the author that there is more to life than 32 figures on a 64 square board - as enjoyable as that pastime can be. I had to ponder the question as to whether the non chess enthusiast would find this an enjoyable book and have to answer yes. It does not get bogged down in theory except in a very general way - names of openings, opening moves, some tactics and objectives - but nothing a person of average intelligence would fail to understand. The addiction, the relationships, the emotions are all too human not to relate to in this interesting narrative. At times funny, at times most serious, but overall, very entertaining.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the Wrong Moves is a touching and brilliant portrait of masculinity. Chapin writes with arresting honesty. He humiliates himself in all the right ways. His descriptions of chess and players are luminous and profound and hysterical. He captures the manner in which none of us are truly in control of our personalities. And we explain our idiocies and achievements in hindsight with a philosophy we hope gives them meaning. We watch Chapin’s obsession with amateur chess talk him into derailing his life in order to play in tournaments against a ten year old he despises for no reason. And then find himself in conversation with a chess master who brings him as close as anyone can get to the secret of chess and life.

[Fil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, not too interesting. An aspiring writer (re)discovers chess, travels halfway around the globe to play in random tournaments, trains with a grandmaster, though it all feels more like material-gathering for a future book than a genuine journey into the game.

As a huge chess enthusiast myself, I finished this book thinking I should be glad I didn’t start playing while in my 20s as I would have been capable of doing the same stuff.

[ar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just great writing, man. Chapin's writing hooked me much like the amphetamines he described in the first piece of his writing that I had the pleasure of reading. (https://hazlitt.net/feature/dreams-ar... read this if you'd like to experience the best description of amphetamine mania you will ever see). I want to break open his skull and suck out his powers of metaphor. Look at these things (these are from memory and are paraphrased):

"He gave me a look that nearly made my testicles fall off."
"It was like being stabbed with my favorite knife."
"My heart pounded against my ribs like a suicidal toad."

I don't give a fuck about chess (at least I didn't before I read this book). I read this memoir for good writing and that is what I got. You know good writing. You know it when you read a sentence and think "holy shit, I thought I was the only person who felt that way" or "fuck, I wish I came up with that" or just "hahahahahahaha". It's good writing.

It is full of great stuff: mushrooms, mental illness, chess, India, love, it's got it all. It increased my love for writing and memoir and inspired me to get better at words. I read this book in three sittings, and I would have gladly read for another few. The secret of chess, according to the author, has a lot to do with never wanting it to end. That is how I felt about this book.

Well Played, Sasha Chapin. Well played.

[Ed Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

You had me at chess memoir. It works fine as a memoir, although one is left wondering how the author can be in a situation where he can just take two years to pretty much do nothing but travel the world and play chess. He even commissions his own personal cologne scent at one point. Huh?

But the chess stuff is pretty good, especially his kind and affectionate treatment of Ben Finegold, whom Chapin studies under for a brief period of time. To watch Finegold in youtube videos is an exercise in cringing, so his coming across here as affable and even somewhat likable was a revelation.

While the book's not really about aphoristic-style insights, I can't help but pull them out when they appear. Here are some good ones:

+ Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the chess player. (attributed to Tarrasch)

+ When you see a good move, look for a better one. (attributed to Lasker)

+ The winner of the game is the player who makes the last-to-next-mistake (attributed to Tartakower

+ Long variation, wrong variation (not attributed)

+I see the right way and approve it; alas, I follow the wrong (Ovid)

I also enjoyed the brief mentions of some classic games (e.g., Immortal Game, Evergreen Game, the Game of the Century) as well as Chapin's discussion of typical mind fallacy in the context of chess.

Good stuff.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun read, especially as I’m in the midst of a resurgence in my own chess obsession, and fun to see my own Toronto context reflected. Also enjoyed and related to the colourful descriptions of India. I found lots of highly relatable sentiments and experiences here in general, and it was very fun to understand and think through the actual chess moves and plays he described. I went to watch “the Game of the Century” which I’d never looked at before because of the mention in this book, and observed that brilliance with awe and reverence! For Bobby Fischer a little but mostly for the game itself.

Something I loved seeing in this book that I’ve been thinking about a lot myself lately is the way that chess is a conversation; an interpersonal interaction; a symphony; a dance; I could go on, but it’s a real thing of beauty. The way that character, attitude, feelings, messages are conveyed through the board… it boggles my mind in the best way, I love it, and I loved seeing Sasha paint this picture from many angles. Some fav quotes to come.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sasha Chapin tames the unruliness of the memoir with an 8x8 grid, while chess kicks his ass.
The conventions of the game are used to bring meaning to the obsessions, impulses, and indignities
that are experienced universally, but are most acute when struggling against ones own mediocracy.

Chapin's prose are humorous and self deprecating, As they have to be to describe the humility that comes with learning and struggling to reach ones potential. Chapin is beaten by young children one minute and, old street hustlers the next, but the hardest beat is that after a certain skill level, chess mastery is about about the luck of genetics. This gives us one more reason to be embarrassed about having a body, but another to laugh at it.

[Bonnie G.]

DNF at page 55. I was an Asia bum for 2 years and have great stories. Often people tell me I should write a book. I always say that the stories are better for cocktail accompanied chatter, and that as a book it would get tortured and tedious. This book confirmed that for me. The chess angle doesn't really help.

[Dan Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching and hilarious. I laughed out loud on the bus many times.

[Dlmrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved All the Wrong Moves because the storytelling is genuinely great, especially at the beginning. Just enough theory woven in without feeling too heavy. It reminded me a bit of what Shoe Dog did for business or Born to Run for running, but in the chess world, though definitely way less optimistic. Honestly, I finished it feeling like I'll never get good at chess without turning completely crazy like Sasha.
Would definitely read any other book he writes.
I think this quote sums up the vibe perfectly: "I wrote a book about being bad at chess around the world."

[Benjamin Deeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the Wrong Moves is a sharp, clever, and meaningful story from an author who has exactly the right tools to tell it. Chapin’s account of his journey, compelling on its own, is broken up by asides that effortlessly blend knowledge with narrative. These give the reader an inside look at the professional chess world and offer a robust history of the game.

Luckily, Chapin’s passion for chess is infectious, and you’ll find yourself enthralled with the subject even if you’d never played before. When I finished reading, I ended up spending hours on chess.com getting my ass handed to me by players who were almost definitely twelve years old. It wasn’t until I was personally trounced by children that I realized how accurately Chapin describes the experience.

From the outset, Chapin makes it clear that he’s self-aware enough to know that his deep dive into competitive international chess is a fool’s errand, but bold enough to do it anyway. While this might come off as pretentious or obnoxious from a lesser writer, Chapin’s unending wit, honest reflection, and remarkable voice make All the Wrong Moves an incredibly riveting read that will stick with you for weeks.

[Victoria Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the entirety of this book in an afternoon. I carried it around with me while I made tea, and took it into the bath, and curled up with it at night. I dog-eared a good 30% of the pages & kept revisiting passages over and over again. It's just one of those reads.

I was surprised by how funny it was. And it's like... really hard for a book to make me laugh? Which made the ending all the more poignant, when it sort of socked me in the guts with its profundity.

This book does that to you with ease. It makes you laugh, it makes you question your own life choices, it makes you google words & events, and then it casually, and unexpectedly hands you glistening gems of enlightenment in the form of strange, thoughtful, beautifully twisted and elegantly crafted prose.

I'm floored that this is his debut. It is a deeply touching piece of work, utterly unique, and full of complex ideas & gorgeous, unconventional stories. He's a stellar writer. Needless to say, this book is officially one of my all time favorites.

[John Bastin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many people who read this book seem to think it's some kind of wonderful; I couldn't get there. To me, it seems like a frivolous description of a period of his life centered around playing bad chess.

I play chess, I can appreciate his description of the attraction of the game. I've played tournament chess, he does a pretty accurate characterization of the time in the game when things seem to be going well, right before you make the blunder that kills your chances. Like him, I've been there and I know the feelings. Unfortunately, if they're my feelings I can appreciate them, but based on his writing and his description of the happening, I just cannot bring myself to care.

If you read this story, it is entertaining, and thankfully it's not terribly long, so you can finish it easily before you tire of it and put it away.

[Timothy Ha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to learn the secret of chess, and a little bit more

After the author lamented the frequent appearing of the name of Tarrasch in his book, quoting Tarrasch could be unfair, but that quote is, “Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make people happy.” This book was a great love story of an amateur with chess, and the story, as much as I wanted it to continue, has an ending, like any game of chess, and all three possible results - win, loss or draw - are ok.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love chess books (not instruction but fiction or memoirs) so i'm giving this five altho there were parts i could have done w/o and i really did not love it. but there were paragraphs that i loved enough to photograph and send to my son, so...a five

[Oscar Sykes]

This was an enjoyable read and strongly resonated with my semi-serious view that "chess is a nerd trap which people should not touch with a ten-foot pole until the age of 60." I often ponder how GDP would differ in alternate worlds. For example, how much higher would GDP be in a world without insane restrictions on building nuclear power plants or immigrating to other countries? Or one of my favorites, how much greater would New Zealand's GDP be if the Stuff quiz didn't exist? However, one of the more depressing alternate worlds to consider is the one where chess doesn't exist. Imagine all the companies not founded and drugs not discovered due to some of the smartest people in society being engrossed in chess. I rediscovered this wonderful quote from Paul Morphy in this book: "The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.”

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devoured it within a day of receiving it. I enjoyed the hell out of this delightful book. It had such a perfect balance of new-to-me knowledge, human insight, and wicked humour all the way through. For a memoir about a game, I was moved by the depth of Chapin's insights into himself and the people around him (the healthy dose of self-deprecation added to the overall feeling of honesty). I enjoyed every literary reference and every well-drawn character (his master chess teacher was a scream). It was fascinating to think about the kind of mind that can really master chess, and the people whose cognitive styles that end up coming up short (not much of a spoiler here: Chapin is humble and frank about falling into the latter category). I wish I could read more memoirs like this, that expand my knowledge of human achievement while maintaining an amusing authenticity about our shortcomings. More please Mr. Chapin!

[Justin Langlois · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining read. Sasha Chapin was really able to explain the almost inexplicable draw of chess. As a player and chess club adviser, I've found myself completely taken over by the game at many different parts of my life. While not quite to the extent of the author (I've never gone to a small town in India for a chess tournament), I have found myself playing online games of chess for hours on end without even realizing it. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has ever played chess and found themselves completely drawn in by its complexities and competitive nature...or to anyone who has had to deal with such a person.

[Tejashree Murugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Badly played chess is kind of like badly played life. Real problems are dealt with poorly or not at all, while much effort is expended on avoiding imaginary danger. Rather than dealing with the reality of the situation, you act as if you were playing the game you wish you were. Then you collide with the boundaries between the actual and the hypothetical.”

“Every year, I discover, more and more, that I’m the same as everyone else. Which is kind of great, because it means that life is not so mysterious. You just do what other people do. Say please. Floss. When you’re making scrambled eggs, stir them really fast so they don’t get crusty. Find a few good people and try to hang on to them. Don’t lose all your pieces.”

“Did Bobby Fischer have a strong sense of mistrust?
So much so that he would order orange juice on airplanes and demand it be squeezed in front of him, so he could be sure the Soviets weren’t poisoning him.
But couldn’t the Soviets have put poison in the orange with a syringe, before squeezing it?
Probably, but even Bobby Fischer had to just relax and have some orange juice sometimes.”

[Amber Daugherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted to live in this book forever. It was hilarious, endearing, self-aware and honestly just really interesting. Sasha wanted to be a chess genius - someone who picked up the game and impressed everyone around him with his crazy skills, learned very quickly or perhaps just unlocked from somewhere in his deep subconscious. But when he starts playing - in Bangkok, St. Louis, India, LA, he realizes that his story is not that one and if he wants to be good, he has to play the long game, study and lose a bunch to learn how to win. This is a book about failure. About putting passion over people. About being so intent on a goal that nothing else matters.

I want you to read this book because his writing is amazing and he's clearly just an amazing person. This may be my favourite book of the year - and I think you'll love it too.

[Matt Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 5 star book for fans of the Queens Gambit and an awesome companion read.

I would have cut the first chapter which turned me off with some egoism, but the rest of the book examines BPD, describes the chess culture in a fun to read way that was more Michael Lewis or New Yorker style (this was 10x better than the Walking with Einstein book about memory champions) and had a great use of metaphors and analogies.

I especially enjoyed the description of writers “as people who fiddle with synonyms.”

[Yesmo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehh, hes kinda full of himself or trying too hard to be funny. I dunno. Maybe after a few years he'll be less annoying. Decent book though.

[Glynis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite a busy life juggling two kids under 5 and farming, I plowed (p the p) through this little book in less than 20 hours. Chapin’s witticisms and sharp insights never got old, and I had to dog ear a couple of pages. Honest, surprisingly thrilling and all in all a worthwhile and feel good read. No need to play chess to appreciate, just a pulse.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brutally (beautifully?) honest memoir of the drama I never thought would be drama: Chess addiction.

Thank you Sasha for every time I laughed aloud while sitting at the cafe reading this, hoping someone would realize how much fun I was having.